Mushrooms & Fungi Encyclopedia

The Complete Guide to 300 Mushroom & Fungi Species — from prized edible porcini and chanterelles to deadly poisonous amanitas — with expert identification, foraging, cultivation, and culinary guides.

🍄 Choice Edible

The finest wild edible mushrooms sought by foragers and chefs worldwide. Porcini, chanterelles, morels, and other prized species with exceptional flavour, texture, and culinary versatility. These are the mushrooms that inspire lifelong foraging passion.

🌱 Cultivated

Species grown commercially or at home on substrates like straw, sawdust, logs, and compost. From the ubiquitous button mushroom to gourmet oysters, shiitake, and lion's mane — these fungi feed the world and are accessible to home growers of every skill level.

💊 Medicinal

Fungi with documented bioactive compounds used in traditional medicine and modern research. Reishi, turkey tail, chaga, lion's mane, and cordyceps lead a growing body of evidence for immune support, neuroprotection, and anti-inflammatory properties.

🟤 Boletes

Fleshy, pore-bearing mushrooms of the order Boletales. Distinguished by spongy tubes under the cap instead of gills. Includes the legendary porcini (Boletus edulis) and dozens of Leccinum, Suillus, and Xerocomus species found in mycorrhizal association with trees.

🟡 Chanterelles & Trumpets

Golden chanterelles, black trumpets, and their relatives — among the most sought-after wild mushrooms worldwide. Recognized by their funnel shape, false gills (ridges), and fruity apricot aroma. Mycorrhizal partners of hardwoods and conifers across temperate forests.

🔴 Amanita & Russula

Two of the largest and most important mushroom genera. Amanita includes deadly poisonous species alongside choice edibles like Caesar's mushroom. Russula and Lactarius (milk caps) are mycorrhizal giants found in nearly every forest ecosystem worldwide.

🌲 Bracket & Polypore

Shelf-like fungi growing on wood — from the brilliant orange chicken of the woods to the massive hen of the woods. Polypores are crucial decomposers and include both edible species and important medicinal fungi like reishi and turkey tail.

🧊 Coral, Jelly & Club

Spectacularly shaped fungi that break the mushroom mould. Coral fungi branch like undersea corals, jelly fungi wobble with gelatinous textures, and club fungi stand like miniature baseball bats. Includes edible wood ear, snow fungus, and beautiful Ramaria species.

🍂 Decomposer & Saprobic

Nature's recyclers — fungi that break down dead organic matter. Ink caps that dissolve into black liquid, fairy ring mushrooms that dance across lawns, and wine caps cultivated in garden beds. Essential to nutrient cycling in every ecosystem.

🌳 Mycorrhizal Wild

Wild fungi forming intimate partnerships with tree roots, trading soil minerals for plant sugars. Includes truffles (the world's most expensive fungi), matsutake, hedgehog mushrooms, and many species that cannot be cultivated because they depend on living trees.

☠️ Toxic & Inedible

Species that cause illness or death if consumed. From the deadly death cap and destroying angel to the kidney-destroying Cortinarius orellanus. Essential knowledge for every forager — learning to recognize these species can save lives.

✨ Unusual & Rare

The curiosities and rarities of the fungal kingdom. Stinkhorns that mimic rotting flesh, bioluminescent ghost mushrooms, earthstars that puff spores, bird's nest fungi with tiny "eggs," and truffles worth their weight in gold. Nature's most creative designs.

🌿 Mosses Encyclopedia

300 moss species — fungi and mosses share many of the same forest floor habitats.

🌲 Trees Encyclopedia

Mycorrhizal mushrooms form symbiotic partnerships with tree roots — explore their hosts.

🌿 Herbs Encyclopedia

194 culinary and medicinal herbs — perfect companions for mushroom dishes and foraging.

🥔 Vegetables Encyclopedia

392 vegetable species — mushrooms are the perfect companion in the kitchen garden.